When Support Matters: Predictors of Child Protection Workforce Retention During Welfare Reform

Abstract

Child welfare systems play a critical role in promoting safety and wellbeing of children and families. The high-profile cases of child abuse heighten media attention and public outrage, culminating in reactionary system reforms. Reform efforts can have unintended consequences on the workforce when reforms are implemented in a way that does not adequately support and engage child welfare professionals. Nevertheless, the nexus between welfare system reform and workforce stability has not been robustly researched. This study assessed the association between child protection workers’ perception of support during the welfare reform and their intentions to remain employed. We hypothesized that workforce perception of support during reform could be transformed into a measurable scale (i.e., Support During Reform Scale). We then tested whether scale could predict workforce retention and above other factors commonly discussed in the literature. Drawing on the cross-sectional survey (n=679), researchers conducted a hierarchical regression analysis to fit the workforce predictive model. We found that our candidate model (R2adj=.17) includes four-point Likert-scaled perceived support during reform could explain the most variance in intentions for child protection workers and supervisors to stay in their current positions. The findings underscore that supports that agencies offer are critical in child protection workforce retention.